Ukrainian Patriarch Compares Putin To Cain, The Bible’s First Murderer

The leader of the Kiev Orthodox Church compared Vladimir Putin to Cain, Judas, and Pharaoh from the Bible. The Patriarch never mentioned Putin by name, but mentions a leader who has fueled the conflict in the Ukraine and “did everything in order to foment the conflict and maintain it.” Laced with biblical references, the Patriarch Filaret says that Putin faces eternal damnation if he does not repent in the statement titled, “New Cain.”

It might go down as the most vicious bible-based critique on a national leader.

The statement puts all the blame for the crisis in the Ukraine on Putin. As a fellow Orthodox, Filaret considers the violence brought against the Ukrainians as equal to Cain’s violence against his own brother in the Bible. Although comparing Putin’s lies and violence to Cain was the focus of the statement, the Patriarch goes on to use other Bible references to illustrate the Russian leaders evil, at one point saying that he was possessed by the devil.

“Calls for this ruler and his minions have already been sounded many times publicly – to think again, to stop sowing evil and death, to repent. But it seems that he remains deaf to these appeals and only multiplies evil, because satan went into him, as into Judas Iscariot.”

It might be the first time Russia’s president has been called out as a Judas, the man who betrayed Jesus in the Bible. The patriarch uses some additional Bible logic for his argument.

“From the Holy Scriptures, we know that two great sins, murder and lie are in close unity with each other, as the ruler and the inspirator of both is the devil. Therefore, anyone who indulges in these sins, according to the Savior, has the devil as his father.”

As for Vladimir Putin’s ultimate punishment for his crimes, the Patriarch pulls no punches.

“For your actions you separate yourself from the Orthodox Church and God, doom yourself to an ignominious end of this life and eternal damnation in hell – in the life of the future world. For all the blood that was shed at your will, and the evil done by your order, your punishment will be the same as the punishment of the liar and fratricide Cain – the curse and eternal damnation.”

Patriarch Filaret leads the Kiev Orthodox Church, which broke away from Russia in 1992, leaving the Patriarch free to preach the lessons of the Bible with an independent political twist.

The full statement can be found here.

[Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons]